Duo News & Press

Proactive response to the impact of password guessing and phishing attacks on Virginia Tech systems and users

Virginia Tech is partnering with Duo Security to implement two-factor authentication protocols to enhance security when logging into university data systems and protect against data theft.

Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer Scott F. Midkiff announced the selection of Duo Enterprise Edition as the technical solution for the two-factor authentication initiative. Duo Enterprise provides advanced security solutions for the world’s fastest-growing and largest companies, government agencies, financial companies, and higher education institutions. Duo’s technology employs intuitive, usable technologies to protect users, data, and applications from account breaches due to credential theft. Midkiff cited the system’s ease of use, including self-registration, and the ability to use a variety of devices. With Duo Enterprise in place, Virginia Tech safeguards faculty, staff, and students from theft of data with minimal disruption in their daily workflow.

“As cyber-attacks become more numerous and sophisticated, combating the threats to personal data and sensitive information is becoming more challenging. By using the secure credentials that will be developed as part of this initiative, we will all be doing our part to protect the university community,” said vice president Midkiff.

“We’re proud to be protecting Virginia Tech’s faculty, staff, and students from malicious attacks and phishing attempts,” said Duo Security CEO and co-founder Dug Song. “We look forward to working with Virginia Tech to adapt our access security solution to make it as seamless and effective as possible. We applaud them for taking such a proactive step to block data breaches.”

The move to two-factor authentication is the culmination of investigations that have taken place over the past two years. In response to the impact of password guessing and phishing attacks on Virginia Tech systems and users, Vice President Midkiff named a cybersecurity task force in 2014. The task force recommended that all critical university systems be protected by two-factor authentication utilizing one-time passwords. A one-time password is a single-use code that is received via a device in the user's possession. While this method of authentication is already used at Virginia Tech with select applications, the technology has not been widely utilized, and no solution is currently in place that would scale to the whole university. This new endeavor brings two-factor authentication to the enterprise scale for the entire university.

For more information on the project and to track progress, visit www.it.vt.edu/2factor.

About Duo Security Duo Security is a cloud-based access security provider protecting the world’s fastest-growing and largest companies and thousands of organizations worldwide, including Box, Etsy, Facebook, K-Swiss, Palantir, Paramount Pictures, Random House, Toyota, TripAdvisor Twitter, Yelp, Zillow, and more. Duo Security’s innovative and easy-to-use technology can be quickly deployed to protect users, data, and applications from breaches, credential theft and account takeover. Duo Security is backed by Benchmark, Google Ventures, Radar Partners, Redpoint Ventures and True Ventures. Try it for free at www.duosecurity.com.

Contact:
Sally Feller Lanier
PR Manager
Duo Security
sally@duosecurity.com

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